For Shutting Things Out
by White Collar Zombie
Summary: Walls were for containing things. For barricading. For shutting things out. For keeping things in. Germancest Fall of the Berlin Wall Song fic. Not smut, sorry.


**AN/ Germancest Berlin Wall fic. I'm not even sure if this is angst or fluff or what anymore. But I do know this is a Song Fic. Excuse me as I shoot myself in the foot. I hate song fics, but lo! and behold, one spawned in my brain during a car ride. Oh well, at least I like Eddy's voice.**

**The song is Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town, by Pearl Jam.**

**I do not own Hetalia, and criticism is welcome.**

_I seem to recognize your face_

"Really...?" Gilbert thought he'd be sick. The room spun like a green helicopter leaf, dancing in the breeze on it's way to the earth. His knees shook and threatened to buckle under the sudden weight.

_Haunting, familiar, yet I can't seem to place it_

The tears came in waves. The floor rushed up to meet him but the sting of his palms went unnoticed. One hand came up and covered his mouth to censor his voice. The man nodded, and suddenly Gilbert was aware of the time.

The time was being wasted.

_Cannot find the candle of thought to light your name_

The night air was crisp on his bare arms. The pounding of boots on the asphalt and the hiccups of voices were the only things he could hear. There were others along with him- trying to outpace the rising and catch the setting sun. Some were drawing blankets around their trembling forms and others were shrugging pickaxes on their burdened shoulders.

_Lifetimes are catching up with me_

There was the Wall.

Walls are for containing things.

For barricading.

For shutting things out.

For keeping things in.

_All these changes taking place, I wish I'd seen the place_

It was breaking. Men and women and children were splitting the Wall. Graffiti-laced chunks were ripped from what used to be something so solid and consistent and so immovable.

The Wall was breaking down.

_But no one's ever taken me_

When his knees met the asphalt this time Gilbert noticed the pain. There were fragmented pieces of the Wall scattered across the road. Gloved fingers dragged through the pale dust. A shaky sigh blew out from his frame as he looked on through blurry eyes as his people took up the broken Wall and wrapped them up in sheets and blankets and took them away.

There was a gap in the Wall. People flooded in and out.

_Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away_

There was something, someone over there Gilbert needed to see. The realization was so sudden and so powerful his stomach churned with the thought. He stood slowly and observed through glazed eyes as his unsteady form drew closer to the Wall.

_Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away_

Walls were for containing things.

For barricading.

For shutting things out.

For keeping things in.

The Berlin Wall was falling.

_I swear I recognize your breath_

It felt like a dream. Gilbert stepped up to the rubble and reached out tentatively to the crumbling side.

So the wall had scars, too.

_Memories, like fingerprints, are slowly raising_

His foot probed the foreign earth that once was so familiar. It was solid. Did he assume the ground would fall out from beneath his feet?

Gilbert shifted his weight forward and stepped into the West.

His knees were too weak.

_Me, you wouldn't recall, for I'm not my former_

Gilbert braced himself. His eyes squeezed shut and his hands reached out to catch himself yet again. The sharp concrete chips threatened to hurt him; the Wall was good at that.

A pair of arms came out and caught him around the middle.

Red eyes flashed up into crisp blue.

_It's hard when you're stuck upon the shelf_

"Are you okay?" The man asked. Gilbert was frozen. There was nowhere to move, nowhere to run. No Wall to hide behind.

He knew this face.

_I change by not changing at all, small town predicts my fate_

"I'm fine." He whispered. The man did not release his grip on him as he stood up.

"I'm fine..."

For shutting things out. For keeping things in.

_Perhaps that's what no one wants to see_

"I'm sorry, sir, for staring, but you remind me of someone I once knew." The blue-eyed man mummered. Gilbert blushed, but did not withdraw from the warm embrace.

"Are... Are you by any chance... Gilbert?" He breathed as he tightened his grip.

_I just want to scream... Hello..._

"Come on, Luddy, could you really forget me?" Gilbert choked out. His little brother froze in the brutal winds of the late-autumn air.

Ludwig did not move.

_My God, it's been so long, never dreamed you'd return_

"Well say something, West!" Gilbert frantically tried to pull free from the iron grip. His eyes were brimming over and his stomach turned inside him. Finally he slipped free from the strong embrace.

Ludwig snapped out of his daze and looked down at him.

"Gilbert..."

_But now here you are, and here I am_

And his arms were around him again and his body was dragged forward into the crushing warmth that was Ludwig's chest. Gilbert threw his arms around his little brother's neck.

His walls were crumbling.

_Hearts and thoughts they fade away_

Long ago it would have been Ludwig sobbing into his shoulder. Gilbert couldn't hold back. There was nothing left in him to try.

There had always been one thing the Berlin Wall could not contain.

Out the corner of teary, red eyes, Gilbert saw a man take up his spray can. He tagged the wall and Gilbert read it silently to himself as he let Ludwig pull him tighter.

"Only today is the war really over."

**AN/ If there are any inaccuracies or something wrong with the lyrics then please tell me and I'll fix them. I actually thought I'd do this from a split perspective, but I guess that just didn't happen, lol. I hope you enjoyed it!**


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